Chapter 244: Chaos (10)
Without a word, the man lifted Rahma’s head high into the air.
At the sight of it, both Lian and Lancia had no choice but to swallow their breath and remain on guard.
Cruelly enough, both of them had deep ties with Rahma in many ways, which only made it worse.
Lian had been bound to Rahma through ill fate even from his previous life.
He still remembered vividly how Rahma had been torn apart by high-ranking spirits until not even a trace remained.
And in Lancia’s case, even if Rahma had switched into a different body at the time, wasn’t she the very one who had personally crushed his head and taken his life?
That was why the two of them had no choice but to stare at the man with the utmost caution.
Whatever he was holding in his hand, the moment he brought it out like that, it was obvious he had some other scheme in mind.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
A brief moment passed like that.
……And astonishingly, nothing happened.
No, to be precise, it wasn’t that nothing happened.
At some point, Rahma’s head seemed to blur at the surface, and then it turned into dust and scattered away.
The man casually tossed aside the head as it began to crumble into dust.
‘……What is this?’
Watching that sight, I thought to myself.
Was it a misfire?
Or had he perhaps failed to accomplish what he intended due to a lack of magical power?
But seeing how utterly composed the man remained, I instinctively realized my guess was wrong.
“Lancia Senior!”
I immediately shouted a warning to her.
But my warning was unnecessary.
She already knew.
No—more precisely, she knew because she had seen it.
“…….”
Her two eyes were seeing everything without missing a single detail.
……Until now, she hadn’t had the time to grow accustomed to her eyes.
Just moments ago, she had been wandering through a barren Wilderness that seemed to hold nothing at all.
An ordinary person would have lost their sanity long ago.
But because she had chosen such ordeals since childhood, even though she had reached her limit, she endured it through sheer mental strength.
Was that the reason?
Or was it something else?
Whatever the case, she was gradually becoming accustomed to her new eyes at a rapid pace.
And with those newly gained eyes, Lancia could see it.
Around the Man without a Head, something that had flowed out from Rahma’s head was spreading outward.
“……Miracle of Protection!”
She tried to alert me and create a protective barrier through a miracle to block the impure force.
“Ah.”
But her strength fell short, and her prayer came to nothing.
In that moment, without realizing it, she was about to utter the name of the source of her faith—
In other words, Popolotuass—
But I stepped in first and cast a blessing upon her instead.
“……Thank you.”
Looking at me, she slightly lowered her head in gratitude.
Then, as if struck by the confusion of the situation—and the thought that everything she had been hiding until now had been exposed—she could not hide the complicated emotions welling up inside her.
“Junior.”
She muttered quietly.
“……So, I—”
Before she could continue, I raised a hand as if to say it was fine.
Then I pointed at the man standing before us.
“We’ll talk later.”
“……Yes.”
She nodded and faced the man alongside me.
Watching us, the man silently admired us.
‘What remarkably pure power.’
Ordinary venom or curses wouldn’t even work on him.
Calmly observing me, the man smiled faintly to himself.
‘……But.’
Most people knew that smoke existed, and they could even see it—but they could not grasp it with their hands.
The power he had just used belonged to that very category.
They shouldn’t have tried to block it.
They should have avoided it.
“Come to think of it…….”
Without any prelude, the Man without a Head abruptly began to speak.
“The Holy Sun Church originally began in the lands far below. In a barren Wilderness, in a region of withered desert…….”
There was no need to listen to an enemy’s words.
Lancia had been about to ignore him and charge forward when something she could not possibly disregard reached her ears.
“The land where you stood just moments ago—that was the very place. The land where the Holy Sun Church was born.”
“…….”
Though she said nothing, Lancia couldn’t help but flinch.
Seeing that, the man continued.
“How was it? After hearing my story just now, did your faith perhaps surge within you?”
“…….”
“How in the world did you survive in that land?”
He asked quietly.
“Did you endure it with unwavering and unshaken faith? Or did you endure it with a desire for revenge to kill me? Or was it merely a desperate refusal to die? I am truly curious about that.”
“……I have no need to answer the likes of you.”
At last, unable to endure it any longer, Lancia spat out the words.
Even at her reaction, the man raised one hand as though satisfied, like an actor on stage.
“Ah, you have answered my question. Good. Very good. It is a far better answer than simply saying you would kill me. ……Ah, there is no need to reply. I can already see it—you would say you overcame it through faith.”
As if he knew everything, he spoke smoothly.
“As expected, all members of the Holy Sun Church have been that way. I have met quite a number of them, you see. Which makes me wonder just how devout you are. To stand so firmly before me in a body that would not seem strange to collapse at any moment—it stirs my curiosity.”
The man spoke while looking only at Lancia.
“Noble, upright, stubborn, narrow-minded—or even those who merely use God as a tool. I have met many from the Holy Sun Church. And every one of them, before me, professed the sincerity of their faith.”
As he spoke, he rubbed his index finger and thumb together.
And between his fingers, a thin Iron Needle revealed itself.
“And every one of them stripped away a layer before this…… single small needle of mine. All of them were nothing but shells. They gathered the crumbled fragments of their faith and the years they had lived, only to scatter and fade. I wonder what you will be like. So…… hmm.”
He hesitated for a moment, then spoke as if embarrassed.
“My apologies. Would you tell me your name?”
“……Lancia. Lancia Jintia.”
She growled the words.
“……The name of the sole survivor of the village you burned. And the name of the one who will burn you to console the souls of the dead and prove that justice still exists in this land.”
“Ah, yes. Lady Lancia.”
The man nodded.
“I sincerely hope that you truly believe as much as you think you do.”
As their exchange continued, I couldn’t shake off an uneasy feeling.
For a Great Demon, even language itself could become a lethal weapon.
And I had no intention of playing along with whatever motive lay behind his sudden talk of faith and the Holy Sun Church.
“…….”
I gripped my Twin Swords and began quietly pouring power into them.
“A technique that cuts even space. That will not work on me.”
Sensing my intent, the man spoke first, as if striking preemptively.
“To be frank, I had no knowledge of the peculiar power you displayed earlier…… so I was unprepared. It is rather embarrassing. But this is different. I already know that.”
He continued.
“I urge you once more in earnest. I already know it. And knowing means I have prepared countermeasures. That technique carries severe recoil—if mishandled, it may damage your body and even your life. ……And if you were to die, that would inconvenience me somewhat. So for both our sakes, I ask you to stop.”
And astonishingly, I found his words persuasive.
‘……What?’
……Something was wrong.
I realized it a beat too late.
Then it struck me.
Though only for a moment, my concentration had faltered.
It required time to prepare, and my strength had already been nearly exhausted.
‘What a foolish mistake.’
As I tried to steady my momentum again, the man seized the opportunity and turned to Lancia once more.
“Did my Iron Needle hurt much?”
Lancia did not answer.
“That Iron Needle does more than simply revive the dead.”
He began explaining quietly.
“If it embeds itself in someone like you…… someone who possesses power, it carries the force to assimilate and erode, harmonizing you with me. In the end, it allows us to intermingle and understand one another.”
“……Disgusting bastard. Even the very notion makes me sick.”
Lancia spat out again.
Only then did I understand what he was trying to do.
“Senior!”
I shouted for her not to listen—to ignore him.
But Lancia stared only at the man, as though she couldn’t hear me.
“You and I are already fairly mixed together, Lady Lancia.”
The man murmured softly.
“As proof, did you not just recall my parents’ names rather than Merciful Ilionel?”
“What do you mean—”
Just as Lancia muttered—
Snap.
Before she could finish, the sharp sound of his fingers snapping echoed through the air.
“Ah.”
And Lancia realized what she had just said moments ago.
“……You fight exactly like my parents.”
The woman muttered quietly.
Then, with eyes filled unmistakably with lingering attachment, she looked over me once before turning away.
‘I’m sorry.’
She whispered the apology softly.
If she could, she would have intervened at once…… but contrary to the Man without a Head’s worries and concerns, she was in no position to step in.
And so she could only move forward to do what she could—what she had to do.
Toward the place where two archrivals, and two friends, were.
“…….”
In silence, she gently stroked the porcelain vessel held in her arms.
Then she looked at the fingertip engraved with the Brand that she had received from Lord Valen Zeisho.
“No, no……!”
Sage Arpentia was still wailing.
She clutched the blood-soaked Lord Valen Zeisho and sobbed, uttering words no one could even understand.
Around her, the three Heroes stood in stunned silence.
“……What?!”
As the woman appeared without any warning, Sage Arpentia flinched in shock and cried out.
But before she could do anything, the woman thrust her hand straight into Talia Poas’s heart.
Brand.
The woman felt the one she had received leaving her body.
……Thump.
It felt as though she heard a heartbeat resounding from somewhere.